Hills of Hayward

Our cat, Isamu, was horribly misnamed upon birth. The error was entirely mine for the name Isamu means “Courage” in Japanese. I was inspired by a character named Isamu Dyson in the series Macross Plus, and named my cat after him.
This last weekend, my cat has been the antithesis of courage. The poor guy can be found squatting in his automated bathroom, the Litter Robot. I cannot entirely blame him for withdrawing. We started some home remodeling work this weekend, and the house is filled with sawing, hammering, and noxious piant fumes.

At first, Isamu took everything in stride. Wandering about investigating everything that changed in the house; however, after we finished changing the basement from carpet to laminate flooring, he has refused to come out of his bathroom.

Maybe the little guy is sulking. Note to self: feed him extra tuna during the holidays.

Many of you know that I have been working on a new website with some friends for the latter half of this year. Our website deals with personal style. We finally launched our website to the general public last week, and so far the reception has been very positive.

The name of the site is “LookSpark“. We hope to help people talk about personal style in an intimate and democratic manner. Instead of reading fashion magazines or watching commercials, anybody can come to LookSpark and immediately start interacting with other people interested in personal style.

Please give the site a try, and help spread the word. I would be happy to hear feedback from you. Below is a sample “spark” that user of the site has created.

Blondes Have More Fun?

Sparked by Chanel_10 at LookSpark

I have been a brunette my entire life. A friend recently told me I should lighten my hair, she said “everyone should be blonde at least once”. It is easy to switch hair… more

Cast Your Vote stay true to your hue go blondie

Wong Kar Wai is one of my favorite directors. His movies, whether it is set in the future or in the past, has a timeless quality to their stories. His characters are often misfits, obsessive, and a little deviant. Unlike in real life where people are bleached by work pressures, social pressures, and the general media from sharing our little personality quirks, Wong’s movies embrace these quirks in its anti-heros. I feel strong attachment to his characters because of their vunerability.

My favorite Wong Kar Wai movie is “Chungking Express“. It should be available now in the foreign section of your local video store thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder Pictures label. Although I warn you, Quentin talks way too much before and after the movie, I would give him the fastforward treatment.

Chungking Express is a modern love story starring Tony Leung, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Brigitte Lin. Unlike regular love stories with sugar-saturated suspension of belief fairy-tale plots, ChungKing Express is urban and contemporary. The movie somehow uses a paging device, expiring cans of fruit, and the ubiquitous city food stand as plot devices. Faye Wong is absolutely ethereal, and watching her act is alone worth a look at this movie.

What got me writing about Wong Kar Wai today was a NY Times article, “The Master of Time: Wong Kar-wai in America”. Wong is apparently shooting a new movie in New York. Similar to Ang Lee who made the jump into Hollywood from asian cinema, Wong is also attempting this leap with the upcoming “My Blueberry Nights” starring Norah Jones, Natalie Portman, and Jude Law.

What is interesting is his choice of using Norah in this movie, who like Faye, also is multi-talented, but is known primarily as a singer rather than an actor. Can Wong pull off his style in Hollywood? Can Norah hold her own as an actress? The movie is due out middle of next year, so I will be anxiously waiting.

My Big Aunt came to visit us last week. We were able to spend some quality time together catching up. She is like Santa Claus; each time she comes, she brings a bagload of goodies. This time she brought my favorite Sun Biscuit (Tai Yang Bing) made from Taichung, and she brought a rice cooker for Christine.

We were able to spend a relaxing week together drinking tea and talking about Taiwan politics. In her daily walk, she was able to discover something new in our yard. At first, I had no idea what this strange-looking fruit was, but upon breaking them open and seeing the plentiful seed and fibrous meat, I guessed it was a fig.

The figs tasted remarkably good, much better than the dried variety that can be found at supermarkets. To me, they tasted like a sweeter passion fruit.  Fig Newtons do not do this little fruit justice.

I recently felt something that I have not experienced in a long time. An intense and brief overwhelming of emotions; my eyes welled up and I got all choked up. I admit, I get choked up readily during emotional scenes in movies like when Gandalf falls from the Bridge on Khazad-dum in the Fellowship of the Rings or the ending to BlackHawk Down when US forces were literally run out of the city in such a primal raw way.

What made this situation strange was that subject that caused this emotional outburst was Starbucks. Ever since Christine lured me into its lair, I have been hooked with the mocha, then the latte, and now with the company itself.

Starbucks projects an air of social responsibility that is unexpected and refreshing from such a behemoth of a company. From its Ethos bottled water to its fair trade coffee to its cardboard cups, this company does seem to actually care about the world.

Earlier this year, Starbucks had in-store promotions for Akeelah and the Bee, an indie movie with a positive and inspiring social message. More recently, I see promotional messages regarding Mitch Albom’s book, “for one more day“, which is also an inspiring book about family.

Despite people moaning that Starbucks is taking over the world, at least Starbucks not only talks the talk of corporate social responsibility, but also walks the walk. A perfect antithesis of Starbucks is a company like British Petroleum that talks a good game about environmental protection, but fails dramatically in its execution to the point that they are facing criminal investigations.

I hope Starbucks can serve as a lasting example for Corporate America (maybe even all of Corporate World) that you can make record profits at the same time being a poster child of corporate social responsibility.